CODEWITHSUNDEEP
ms-accessconditional-formatting
Dominik Svorinic
Dominik Svorinic

Reputation: 3

Is there a way to introduce conditional formatting in Access tables?

I am looking to change the backcolor of each row based on a parameter. I am wondering if this is even possible in MS Access.

I have looked into it but the conditional formatting is greyed out on table view. Also, there are tutorials on conditional formatting but only for reports or forms.

I assume that tables are meant only to store information and not be presented to a user. I am very new to MS Access so I do not fully understand all the nuances coming from Excel.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 880

Answers (2)

Albert D. Kallal
Albert D. Kallal

Reputation: 49039

First as you well know, editing and displaying data while common in Excel?

Think of an accounting package. They present data to edit by using forms.

Think of when you add names to outlook. Once again, data is edited and displayed as a form, and not a table.

And think of your work environment. Has your business EVER used ANY kind of forms?

So, if you ever worked at a business, you will see that such business often use forms, and again they don’t use tables.

So, at the end of the day, you have to grasp this concept and idea that most computer software does NOT work like excel, and in fact the average business does not make their business forms all like a excel table.

However, having stated the above? You can in Access create a data sheet form, and it will look much like the table view. But it allows conditional formatting to be applied.

So you can display and edit data in a table format (with access), but Access has far better options.

So, access has conditional formatting, and that allows say forms like this:

enter image description here

Or this:

enter image description here

So, you can actually apply formats to a datasheet form, and that form will look like as if you opened an access table. However, we have so many far better options, then the data sheet approach is rare used.

Upvotes: 0

Lee Mac
Lee Mac

Reputation: 16015

I assume that tables are meant only to store information and not be presented to a user.

You are correct.

When viewing data in a table or in the datasheet view on a form, there are limited formatting options available, such as: changing fonts, the display of gridlines, background colours and alternate row background colours.

If you wish to apply logic to the presentation of your data, you should either use a report (if the data is read-only), or a continuous form (if the user may also need write-access to the data) in which Conditional Formatting is available or may be applied via an appropriate VBA event handler.

Upvotes: 1

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